Road contractors leave trail of chaos across Haringey

Bungling contractors are being hauled in front of council bosses after a litany of mistakes came to light – including wrong-shaped speed bumps, lines in the wrong place and a “wrong way round” roundabout.

Ringway Jacobs will be meeting with Haringey Council to discuss “some issues” the latter has with the roadworks provider.

Those issues became apparent late last week when the contractors painted arrows pointing the wrong way round a roundabout on the junction of Oakfield and Stapleton Hall Roads.

But an email seen by the Broadway, sent at the start of the month, reveals crisis talks had already been called between the two organisations – and that the roundabout was just the latest in a string of errors.

■ An incomplete line dividing the road in the wrong place on Crouch End Hill

■ The wrong-shaped speed bumps on Crouch End Hill

■ New speed bumps must be replaced in Park Road

■ Incomplete yellow lines on Shepherd’s Hill

■ Forgetting to put signs up to warn residents on Nelson Road of upcoming resurfacing

■ Putting the notice signs in the wrong place in Inderwick Road so the wrong residents moved their cars

■ New speed bump on Uplands Road is “deeply rutted”

■ Numerous poor pothole repairs across the borough

■ Safety signage outside of Coleridge School, Crouch End, still has not been put up.

Ringway Jacobs announced the agreement with the council with some fanfare last summer, when Haringey became the first north-eastern borough to sign up to the London Highways Alliance Contract (LHAC).

The LHAC is supposed to save councils money and “give more consistency in the quality of works and materials used and to minimise disruption by encouraging more efficient practice and co-ordinated working”. Instead, it has left both red-faced.

Lib Dem leader Cllr Richard Wilson said: “The incorrectly painted roundabout is a good metaphor for Haringey Council under Labour rule for the last 40 years – going round and round the wrong way.

“This litany of road repairs disasters and poor work is completely unacceptable. Some of the repairs are so bad they could cause accidents. The council must act now to ensure the mistakes stop and repairs are done properly.”

A council spokesman acknowledged there had been “some issues with the new contractor”, adding it was meeting with the regional director “to discuss performance” - and that any cost to fix errors would be borne by Ringway Jacobs.

A Ringway Jacobs spokesman apologised for the roundabout mistake – which has since been fixed. She added: “Inevitably, given a new contract of this size, there have been some issues arising with a few specific jobs. These have been low in numbers in comparison to the overall scale of work completed.”

The government has announced a review into out-of-hours coroner services after members of Muslim and Jewish communities complained they were being prevented from providing their loved ones with proper religious burials.

Up at The O2 has teamed up with London24 to give one lucky reader the chance to experience urban mountaineering this summer with an exhilarating 90-minute climb across the roof of one of London’s most iconic landmarks.